E-Gilas Pilipinas went for the jugular, annihilating Indonesia via a blowout 66-34 Game Three victory to clinch the Southeast Asia Conference title of the FIBA Esports Open 2020, Saturday evening.
Rial ‘Rial’ Polog Jr. went blazing hot for the E-Gilas side, finishing with a game-high 30 points built on seven three-pointers. The two-time NBA 2k Asia Tournament Champion was very efficient on the floor, missing only two shots in the 20-minute game.
Trailing by as much as 14 points in the third frame, Indonesia to cut the lead to just 11 points through five consecutive points from Fraed ‘Rendangpapi’ Duncker and Ray ‘Glory_ID’ Antonio.
Unfortunately for them, that was the closest they came to the Filipino contingent.
With the Indonesians closing in, the Philippines — led by Rial, Philippe ‘Izzo’ Herrero, and Clark ‘Clark’ Banzon — went on a scorching 19-0 run. The team put away its regional rival for good, 56-26, with exactly four minutes remaining in the game.
The Philippines’ lead would balloon to as much as 35 points via a two-point jumper from Custer ‘Aguila’ Galas in the final minutes of the match. E-Gilas ended the game on a massive 29-8 blitz.
“We know our point guard [Aljon ‘Shintarou’ Cruzin] is one of the best if not [the best]. We just believe that he is, so we just let him get the ball. Then we talked about our offensive schemes, and that’s about it,” said E-Gilas team captain Herrero about Cruzin, who has been running the show for E-Gilas since the start of the tournament.
Aguila chipped in 11 points in the victory, while Herrero added 10 markers. Cruzin, on the other hand, had seven points in the victory.
